Who We Are

Why us? Why now?

This requires us to think about how hospitals function, how doctors collaborate, how providers connect with patients, and how patients participate in their own care in new ways.

The Healthcare Transformation Lab’s founding mission is to improve the experience and value of healthcare through collaborative innovation. Located in Boston — a hub of leading teaching hospitals, academia, technology, and start-ups — the HTL sits within the Massachusetts General Hospital and works to connect, inspire, and support passionate people from diverse backgrounds as they collaborate on ways to improve healthcare.

Innovator Spotlight

Areej El-Jawahri, MD

Areej El-Jawahri, MD is an MGH oncologist specializing in the care of patients with hematologic malignancies and a 2017 recipient of the Innovation Pilot Grant through the Medicine Innovation Program (MIP).

Co-sponsored by the mLab, Dr. El-Jawahri’s project, Psychological Intervention Application for Acute Myloid Leukemia, incorporates medical education and traditional counseling support services into an app to help patients adjust to and further understand their experience after being diagnosed with AML.

The Team

Eric Isselbacher, MD, MHCDSFounder & Director

Eric Isselbacher, MD, MHCDSFounder & Director

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go." -- T.S. Elliot

Eric Isselbacher, MD, MHCDSFounder & Director

Eric Isselbacher is the Founder & Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He completed both his medical residency and cardiology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1996 he joined the staff of the Cardiology Division at Mass General. Dr. Isselbacher is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is motivated to innovate by the fact that healthcare providers today are stretched to the limit, if we hope to improve the efficiency, quality, and experience of healthcare, it can’t be by working harder or faster. It will have to be by a willingness to break with tradition and embrace the science of innovation.

Julia Jackson, MBAManaging Director

Julia Jackson, MBAManaging Director

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." - Albert Einstein

Julia Jackson, MBAManaging Director

Julia Jackson is the Managing Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab where she brings together innovative people to curate and deploy consumer-focused technology to improve the patient and provider experience. Promoting a culture of creativity and collaboration, Julia enjoys building relationships with teams to help them turn bright ideas into tangible solutions that improve care delivery. She earned her MBA from the Simmons School of Management in Boston and her BA from Washington University in St Louis. Prior to MGH, Julia managed public health programs in Malawi, Cote d’Ivoire and Haiti. She traveled abroad working with health ministries and consulting on leadership development.

Maulik Majmudar, MDAssociate Director

Maulik Majmudar, MDAssociate Director

"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious." -- John Scully

Maulik Majmudar, MDAssociate Director

Maulik Majmudar is a cardiologist and Associate Director of the Healthcare Transformation Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is also a lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. He is an active member of the healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship community, with a specific interest in technology-enabled healthcare innovation. Dr. Majmudar is a founding member of Quanttus, Inc. and currently serves as their Chief Clinical Officer. Dr. Majmudar attended Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and then completed residency training in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Cardiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He also holds a patent and has had several publications in high-impact journals, such as Nature, Circulation, and Circulation Research.

Nora Metzger, MSWProject Specialist

Nora Metzger, MSWProject Specialist

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Nora Metzger, MSWProject Specialist

Nora Metzger is a Project Specialist with the HTL. She started her career as a social worker and became passionate about healthcare access while doing case management in Detroit, Michigan. She is interested in leveraging technology to improve care outcomes for patients and communities. Nora has a background in digital marketing, web content management, and research, and comes to Boston from Seattle, WA, where she was a Project Manager at UW Medicine.

Victoria VacaroProject Coordinator

Victoria VacaroProject Coordinator

"Fax? Why don't you just send it over on a dinosaur?" -- Michael Scott

Victoria VacaroProject Coordinator

Victoria Vacaro is a Project Coordinator with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. Victoria graduated from Boston College with a BA in Film Studies, focusing on screenwriting and film. While working at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute as a Program and Marketing Coordinator, Victoria got the knack for planning and running events while researching and integrating people-centric, time-saving tech solutions. Victoria is motivated to innovate by the desire to democratize processes, to open people up to new ways of thinking, and to help give people greater control over their own healthcare experiences.

Ami Bhatt, MDCardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

Ami Bhatt, MDCardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

"Inclusivity is the foundation for lasting and meaningful innovation."

Ami Bhatt, MDCardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

Ami Bhatt is the director of the Adult Congenital Heart Disease Center at MGH, an active clinical cardiologist, investigator and educator and a clinical affiliate of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. She innovates in the cardiology space at the MGH Heart Center in the domains of telemedicine for patient visits, adolescent education, multimodality teleconferences, and adoption of mobile health technologies. Her work has most recently centered on applying design thinking to the multidisciplinary care process creating transparent systems for coordinating and achieving patient and physician centric care, emphasizing that the two are not mutually exclusive. Her interest in digital health strategy stems from her beliefs that state of the art, personalized care can be delivered to individuals in the community and that “concierge” style medicine is possible for everyone. When she’s not busy innovating, she spends time with her husband and two daughters, having dance parties and traveling.

Aaron Aguirre, MD, PhDCardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

Aaron Aguirre, MD, PhDCardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

"There is no authority who decides what is a good idea." -- Richard Feynman

Aaron Aguirre, MD, PhDCardiologist, Clinical Affiliate

Aaron Aguirre is a cardiologist and critical care specialist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School a clinical affiliate of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his doctoral degree in electrical and biomedical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He trained in internal medicine, cardiology, and critical care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Aguirre’s graduate work focused on the development of high-resolution optical imaging methods and catheter technologies for clinical applications, and he has significant experience in the creation and preclinical validation of novel medical devices. His current research at the MGH Center for Systems Biology utilizes innovative molecular imaging and microscopy techniques to investigate the biology of myocardial infarction (heart attack) and related forms of heart disease.

Julianne Soriano, MHADigital Health Innovation Manager

Julianne Soriano, MHADigital Health Innovation Manager

"If you can dream it, you can do it." - Walt Disney

Julianne Soriano, MHADigital Health Innovation Manager

Julianne Soriano is the Digital Health Innovation Manager of the Healthcare Transformation Lab. Passionate about the intersection of healthcare and technology, Julianne started her career as a consultant with Accenture, where she supported clients in the life sciences industry. She has also served in corporate strategy and business development for Evolent Health, a DC-based firm that supports provider organizations with the transition to value-based care, as well as Visiant Health, a payer services organization. Julianne graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Business Administration in IT Management, and is enrolled in the Master in Healthcare Administration program at Seton Hall University.

"What gets measured gets improved.” Peter Drucker

Jocelyn Carter, MD, MPH is a 2017 Aetna Foundation Fellow in Healthcare Innovation with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. Clinically prepared in preventive medicine, internal medicine and leadership at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Dr. Carter is passionate about experiential learning, scalable and cost-efficient initiatives, outcomes research, and healthcare information technology driving the redesign of patient-centered care in healthcare innovation. She is an active member across the MGH community, serving as the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion Manager of Trainee Affairs, and on the Department of Medicine’s Albright Medicine Service and Internship Selection Committee in addition to being a practicing internal medicine hospitalist. A recent awardee of a 2017 Partners Healthcare Center for Population Health Delivery System Innovation Implementation Grant, Dr. Carter and her team are studying the impact of patient-community health worker pairings upon hospital discharge on health care outcomes in high risk populations. She is an editor of the Society of Hospital Medicine Clinical Quick Talks and is a regular reviewer for esteemed academic journals.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Abraham Lincoln

Yanik J. Bababekov, MD, MPH, is a 2017 Aetna Foundation Fellow in Healthcare Innovation with the Healthcare Transformation Lab and the Marshall K. Bartlett Surgical Research Fellow in the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. A surgical resident at MGH, Dr. Bababekov works with a multi-disciplinary team aiming to bridge health services research with healthcare innovation and has been recognized as Top 40 under 40 Healthcare Innovator by MedTech Boston. Dr. Bababekov received a BA in Neuroscience from Middlebury College and earned medical and public health degrees from Tufts University School of Medicine. He enjoys exploring the outdoors with his wife, Lindsay, and daughter, Noa.

Debra DiMuzio, MBAInnovator in Residence

Debra DiMuzio, MBAInnovator in Residence

“Our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys.” - Sam Walton

Debra DiMuzio, MBAInnovator in Residence

Debra DiMuzio is an Innovator in Residence with HTL. She has a strong desire to understand the complexity of the healthcare system from both sides and believes that Innovation is instrumental in the delivery of global, patient-centric, and value-focused care. Passionate about making a difference in the lives of others, Debra began her career as a Surgical Technologist at MGH, where she also gained project management experience while working with multidisciplinary teams in areas of process and performance improvement. Debra has also served in business strategy and development for Arthrex, a Global Orthopedic Medical Device company, and Cora Systems an international Enterprise Portfolio, Program and Project Management Software Company. Debra earned her MBA from Trinity Business School at Trinity College Dublin, and her BS in Health Management from Northeastern University in Boston.

Jeremy RoshInnovation Associate

Jeremy RoshInnovation Associate

"There's a way to do it better - find it" -- Thomas Edison

Jeremy RoshInnovation Associate

Jeremy Rosh is an Innovation Associate with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He comes from Deloitte’s Strategy and Operations Consulting practice where he worked on a broad spectrum of healthcare projects serving payer, provider, and life sciences clients. Passionate about the trend towards a value based healthcare system, Jeremy focused on projects aimed at improving the quality and efficiency of care delivery. Prior to working at Deloitte Consulting, Jeremy helped develop a disease management mobile application at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, and is excited about the role technology can play in improving the patient and provider experience. Jeremy completed his undergraduate studies at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Sherman LeungInnovation Associate

Sherman LeungInnovation Associate

"It's OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket." - Elon Musk

Sherman LeungInnovation Associate

Sherman is an Innovation Associate with the Healthcare Transformation Lab. He currently works as a product manager at PatientPing to enable providers to seamlessly coordinate patient care. His past healthcare/product experiences include gamifying medication adherence at Mango Health, streamlining reconstructive knee surgery recovery at Muvr Labs, and developing telemedicine services in Kenya at ConnectHealth. He holds degrees in Computer Science and Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University where he was a KPCB Fellow and a co-founder of health++, TreeHacks Health, and SHIFT.

Collaborators

Pulse @ MassChallenge

Pulse @ MassChallenge

Pulse @ MassChallenge

PULSE@MassChallenge is the digital health arm of the MassChallenge accelerator. HTL is thrilled to be a Champion for PULSE@’s inaugural year. Champions connect with start-ups within PULSE@ through mutual matchmaking and provide 6 months of mentorship.

The startups we are currently mentoring for Spring 2017 are:

Emerald Innovations – Tracks the 3D motion of patients at home through radio signals to detect falls.

Medumo – Provides timely texts and emails with links to interactive education, to help providers deliver the right instructions to the right patient at the right time.

Aetna Foundation

Aetna Foundation

Aetna Foundation

Recognizing the emerging career path of the Clinician Innovator, the Aetna Foundation sponsors our Fellows Program in Healthcare Innovation. This one year action-learning program provides a unique opportunity for healthcare professionals interested in care delivery transformation projects to make an impact on the front lines. Fellows spend the majority of the year leading care delivery innovation projects in an academic medical center with mentorship from experts in the field as well as support from senior leadership.

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a sponsor of Co.Create, HTL’s program for Boston-area student startups. Through the generosity of AstraZeneca, we are able to offer our program winners seed funding, in addition to mentorship and clinical expertise.

MIT Hacking Medicine

MIT Hacking Medicine

MIT Hacking Medicine

Co.Create, HTL’s external innovation contest, was developed in partnership with MIT Hacking Medicine. The goal of the program is to transform early-stage ideas into sustainable solutions through dedicated mentorship, funding, and support. The program pairs student innovators with subject matter experts and resources within an exceptional academic medical center and a leading healthcare innovation community. After two successful cycles with MIT, we’re pleased to announce that Co.Create is now open to all Boston-area students.

MassArt

MassArt

MassArt

In Spring 2016, undergraduate students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) took part in a 10-week project on hospital navigation. Led by Associate Professor Joe Quackenbush, the students were tasked with proposing approaches and tools to improve the patient wayfinding experience at Mass General. Students studied the MGH campus, drew sketches, and interviewed patients in order to evaluate the current state and offer their recommendations. After impressive final presentations, we look forward to future collaborations with MassArt!

HUBweek

HUBweek

HUBweek

HUBweek is a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration among The Boston Globe, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts General Hospital celebrating innovation and creativity. As part of HUBweek, the Healthcare Transformation Lab hosts a Digital Health Fair highlighting MGH teams working in digital health, as well as emerging technology companies and organizations helping to drive change in the healthcare system.

Attendees are able to see first-hand how technology and medicine are teaming up to revolutionize healthcare in Boston and around the globe. Stay tuned for news about HUBWeek 2017.

Innovation Learning Network

Innovation Learning Network

Innovation Learning Network

The Innovation Learning Network is an organizational-based membership network made up of healthcare systems, health foundations, safety net providers, design/innovation firms, and tech companies. Although their individual missions vary, all member organizations carry a common goal: to make healthcare better through good design. HTL is thrilled to benefit from the collective knowledge of the ILN!

mLab

mLab

mLab

Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (A founding member of mLab)

Information Systems Management and Planning Team (A founding member of mLab)

Lab of Computer Science (A founding member of mLab)

A collaboration between the Healthcare Transformation Lab, the MGPO, IS Management and Planning and LCS, mLab serves as an innovation partner and incubator for MGH and its diverse groups and departments by:

facilitating the design, development, and implementation of mobile solutions;

evaluating and integrating digital health care tools and products that address patient and provider needs; and

serving as a hub to make connections and find synergies among MGH innovators, Partners teams, and external groups from academia and industry interested in collaborating around digital health solutions.

Lab of Computer Science

Lab of Computer Science

Lab of Computer Science

For more than half a century, the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at Massachusetts General Hospital has been transforming health care delivery through biomedical informatics research and the rapid development of innovative health information systems. LCS advancements have enabled Mass General and other hospitals to provide better, more efficient service and have improved patient outcomes and quality of care. LCS is a key partner in the mLab collaboration.

TeleHealth

TeleHealth

TeleHealth

Massachusetts General Hospital TeleHealth enables community providers and Mass General clinicians to provide high-quality, coordinated care to patients and families through virtual technology including: phone, video, text, email, mobile applications and remote monitoring. The Healthcare Transformation Lab served as the implementing arm for TeleHeart, TeleHealth’s cardiology offering. The TeleHealth team frequently collaborates with and advises us on digital health initiative.

CAMTech

CAMTech

CAMTech

Based at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Global Health department, CAMTech is a global network of academic, clinical, corporate, government and non-profit partners, working together to drive health innovation around the world. Collaborating across sectors and geographies, CAMTech identifies pressing clinical needs from the field, crowdsources innovative solutions, and accelerates the cycle from idea to patient impact.

BioMedical Engineering

BioMedical Engineering

BioMedical Engineering

In partnership with clinicians, researchers and other engineering groups, MGH Biomedical Engineering ensures that technology is used appropriately and safely, performs properly and is managed cost-effectively. MGH BioMedical Engineering strives to improve and develop devices and instrumentation for healthcare delivery and for innovative medical and scientific research and to assist others at Partners who are working toward the same objectives. HTL is collaborating with MGH BioMedical Engineering on its Real Time Tracking initiative for asset management.

Department of Medicine Innovation Program

Department of Medicine Innovation Program

Department of Medicine Innovation Program

The Medicine Innovation Program (MIP) was developed as a crucial component of the Department of Medicine’s support of the culture and practice of innovation. The MIP is charged with accelerating the development and introduction of broadly applicable innovative ideas and cost effective technologies into the patient/provider community both within and outside of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Medicine – including information technology, and care delivery to device and drug approaches. For the past two years, HTL and MIP have co-sponsored digital health innovation grants to clinician innovators.

Partners Innovation

Partners Innovation is a cohesive, coordinated group servicing medical inventors, thought-leaders, entrepreneurs and industry. Their goal is to take medical inventions and innovations discovered by Partners HealthCare researchers and provide the appropriate support and infrastructure to allow technology development, commercialization and, ultimately, the development of products to benefit patients.

The team has backgrounds in technology licensing, patenting, bench research, finance, funding, business, law and start-ups.